44:0 NIEMEtf NIEUWENTYT in the style of Lafontaine. A complete edi- tion of his poetical works was published in 12 vols. in Leipsic in 1840, but his other works, including memoirs, have not yet been collect- ed. His Notes sur ma captimte d St. Peters- burg was published in Paris in 1843. BttEMEiV, a river of Europe, rising in the Eussian government of Minsk, and flowing W. to the town of Grodno, through the govern- ments of Wilna and Grodno, then K between those of Wilna and Suwalki to Kovno, and W. between Suwalki and Kovno, and thence through Prussia to the Kurisches Haff, an arm of the Baltic. After entering Prussia it takes the name of Memel. About 8 m. below Tilsit it divides into two branches, one of which is called the Russ, and the other the Gilge. The delta which they form, called the island of Kaukehnen, is remarkable for its fertility. The chief tributaries of the Niemen are the Wilia, Shara, and Zelva. Its entire length is about 500 m., 50 of which are in Prussia. It is the main outlet for the products of the coun- tries through which it flows. As the snows of the regions which it drains dissolve rapidly on the approach of summer, the Niemen fre- quently rises 20 or 30 ft. above its ordinary level, causing great devastation. It is con- nected by the Oginski canal with the Dnieper and the Black sea. NIEMEYER, August Hermann, a German author, born in Halle, Sept. 11, 1754, died in Magde- burg, July 7, 1828. He acquired distinction as a theologian and pedagogue, and in 1808 became chancellor and rector of the university of Halle. In 1816 he went to Magdeburg as consistorial councillor His principal works are: Characteristics der Bibel (5 vols., Halle, 1775-'82) ; Handbucli fur cJiristliche Religions- lehrer (2 vols., 1790) ; Grundsdtze der Erzie- hung und des UnterricJits (3 vols., 1796) ; and Lehrbuch der Religion far die obern Klassen in gelehrten Schulen (18th ed., 1843). All his works passed through many editions, especially the last on account of its prohibition. MEPCE, Joseph Mcephore, a French chemist, one of the inventors of photography, born in Chalon-sur-Sa6ne, March 7, 1765, died July 5, 1833. After serving in the army for one year, he was obliged by severe illness to resign, and was appointed civil administrator of the dis- trict of Nice, which post he held from 1795 to 1801. Retiring then to private life, he devoted himself to the study of mechanics and chem- istry, and as early as 1813 made a series of in- vestigations, which he styled " heliographic re- searches," to find the means of fixing images upon metallic plates by the agency of light. In 1824 he had partially succeeded in producing pictures, first on tin and polished glass, then on copper, and finally on silver, the surface having in each case been covered with a thin film of bitumen ; but the process was very slow. In the mean time Daguerre had been engaged upon the same problem, and in 1829 the two experimenters entered into a copartnership to improve the discovery, which, according to the terms of agreement, had been made by Mepce; but the latter died before it was perfected. See Histoire de la decouverte improprement nommee daguerreotype, by Isidore Niepce fils. MEPCE DE SAINT-VICTOR, Claude Marie Fran- $ois, a French chemist, nephew of the preceding, born at St. Oyr, near CMlon-sur-Saone, July 26, 1805, died in Paris in April, 1870. He was educated at the military school of Saumur and commissioned a sub-lieutenant of dragoons. His first chemical invention was a process by which the color of the facings of a large num- ber of cavalry uniforms was changed from crimson to orange at a cost of half a franc the uniform. For this service, which saved the government 100,000 francs, he received a reward of 500 francs and permission to ex- change into the municipal guard of Paris. The transfer was not effected until three years later, April, 1845, and in the mean while he experimented for the perfecting of the photo- graphic process discovered by his uncle. In 1847 he communicated to the academy of sci- ences two papers, the first of which related chiefly to the reproduction of designs by the use of vapors of iodine, and the second announced his method of obtaining images on glass plates coated with a film of starch, gelatine, or albu- men. In 1848 he announced some important improvements, and the process was soon gen- erally adopted. In 1851-'2 he presented sev- eral memoirs on the subject of photographing colors. He had obtained upon silvered plates, washed with chloride of copper, accurate rep- resentations of a variety of colored objects, but was unable to fix the tints. In 1853 he pre- sented to the academy an account of his pro- cess of heliography, by which he obtained the impression of the image upon a polished steel plate covered with a thin film of varnish, of which benzine was the chief ingredient, after which the picture was bit in with acid. In 1854 he was appointed commandant of the Louvre. In 1855 he published, under the title of RechercJies photograpliiques, all the memoirs on photographic subjects presented by him to the academy. He never patented any of his inventions. He received the Tremont prize from the academy of sciences in 1861, '62, and '63. Among his later works are : Memoires sur une nouvelle action de la lumiere (1857- '8) ; Memoire sur la tJiermograpJiie (1859) ; and Note sur Faction de la lumiere et de Velectricite (1860). NIESHIX, a town of Russia, in the govern- ment and 35 m. S. E. of the city of Tcherni- gov, on the Ostr; pop. in 1872, 20,516, inclu- ding many Greeks. It contains a cathedral, 21 other churches, a monastery, a lyceum, a gymnasium, and several schools. The princi- pal article of trade is tobacco, which is raised in large quantities ; and there is much activity in other branches of industry. NIEUWENTYT, Bernardns, a Dutch mathema- tician and philosopher, born at Westgraafdyk,
